A widely used, lightweight, easily portable, belt lacing machine, hereinafter called belt lacer, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,209 and is assigned to the assignee of this application. Belt lacers of this kind are frequently lighter, more compact and more easily operable apparatus than the stand-alone belt-fastener devices with larger bases and frames. The belt lacer described in the aforesaid patent utilizes a reciprocal carriage carrying a pair of clinching rollers that are operable along a secured belt end, which belt end is maintained in this position during the application of belt fasteners thereto. The belt fasteners are typical wire, open-jaw, C-shaped belt lacing elements, each of which has opposed pointed jaw ends, which are pressed into the conveyor belt end to form a U-shaped clamp with an eyelet to receive a coupling hinge pin for mating with similar belt lacing elements secured to the opposite end of the conveyor belt and for subsequent coupling by a hinge pin inserted through the mated eyelets. In the belt-lacing machine disclosed in this patent, the clinching rollers are held in a roller-head assembly or carriage and the gap or distance at the nip defined between the roller peripheries is adjustable to provide for variations in belt thickness, and more importantly, to provide the user with the opportunity to control the depth to which the pointed ends of the fasteners are progressively pressed into the belt in each of a series of clinching passes. That is, several roller passes or reciprocations are usually used to sink the pointed ends into the belt to the desired depth to secure and clinch the fasteners in the belt end. Sometimes as many as eight to ten passes are used to fully clinch the belt lacing elements to a belt end.
The belt lacer described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,209 uses a manually operated crank which is turned by an operator to turn a sprocket on the carriage to move along a chain drive to traverse the carriage and to roll the clinching rollers to push the hook ends deeper into the belt. The clinching rollers are adjustably mounted in the carriage and, with turning of a knob on the carriage, the clinching rollers are shifted toward or from one another to vary the gap separation between the roller circumferences to accommodate varying belt thicknesses and incrementally change the gap during fastener clinching. One or more interchangeable combs or face plates are used for different sizes of the same fastener or for different shapes of fasteners
The above-described belt lacer is compact and lightweight for portability, are useful in remote locations including on-the-job sites, and find particular application in field-like operations. Therefore, portability and ease of use are vital characteristics for a roller lacer, which is utilized in a remote location, or removed from a permanent location.
To this end the frame and other members may be made of aluminum or other lightweight materials. Often a belt splice or repair is made in the field by maintenance personnel who have access to a number of motor drives such as electric motor driven drills or pneumatic motor drives. There is a need to accomplish this field repair in a quicker and easier manner than heretofore afforded by the above-described prior art belt lacer.